Monday, May 07, 2012

"Under the Hood" is a series of strategy articles
about the inner workings of games developed for Tasty Minstrel Games.
Watch for these posts a couple months after the release of the game so that
players have a chance to explore the game for themselves first!

Belfort is a game with a jovial and lighthearted theme – as a Master Architect,
you direct a workforce of fantasy characters who toil to erect buildings which
make up the city of Belfort. But don’t be deceived by the cute elves, dwarves,
and gnomes on the box! Belfort is a heavy game of resource management, area
control, and strategy!

Large vs small
workforce
Like many worker placement games, Belfort rewards players for increasing their
workforce. While it’s possible to win without your full complement of Elves and
Dwarves, it’s very difficult if you don’t at least hire 1 or 2 more workers.
With no upkeep cost, the only real down-side to hiring is the upfront cost – a placement
and 2 Gold to go to the HR Department. After a point, the return on that
investment diminishes – if you hire a Dwarf in round 4 for example, he’ll only
provide 3 placements before the game is over. A round 4 Dwarf will pay for
itself, and may contribute to resource majorities and points, but it’s nowhere
near as useful as a turn 1 Dwarf! And while a turn 1 Dwarf is awesome, it does
cost a significant portion of your starting capital. So be sure to hire when
the opportunity arises and you can afford it, but also make sure you’ll get
your money’s worth out of your new employee!

Gardens and Pubs are good Properties when working with a
small workforce. They are inexpensive, they increase your income, and by
turning a worker into a Master, they allow you to increase your resource
gathering ability.

Income generation vs
TaxesThere are 3 types of buildings in Belfort – Properties, Guilds, and Walls. Properties
have a wide range of cost and effects. Guilds are expensive, but do not require
a card – meaning you can build them in whichever district you want. They
provide income when used, and that income comes at an interesting time: during
the Placement phase. Walls are moderately priced, but provide no income at all,
making them very poor choices in the early game. The strength of a wall is in
the late game, when you know which district you’d like to build in, but do not
have the correct card to build there.

Deciding which Property to build is one of the interesting
things you’ll do in a game of Belfort. You’ll want to consider the ability –
would you like to use many building powers and fight for Gnome majority? Maybe
the Tower is a good choice – but you should also consider the income of the Property.
The Inn is a good building for expanding your workforce, but with no income it
can really hurt when tax time comes around. The Keep is expensive and only good
for scoring, but it does give 1 gold income as well.

If you can produce more income from buildings than you are
paying in taxes, then you’ll have a lot more gold to spend on things like
Gnomes and Guilds!

Majority scoringIt’s easy to forget while building properties and collecting resources that
you only score for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
majorities in each district. Placing additional ownership markers in a district
where you’re already way ahead may be a waste of resources! Also, keep in mind
when hiring new workers that there are points to be had for controlling the
most Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes.

One more note about area majority scoring – it’s better to score
2nd place in two districts than it is to score 1st place
in one!

Belfort has another area majority mechanism in addition to
scoring – bonus resources from the Forest, Quarry, and Mines. Being the last
player to pass gives you the advantage of seeing where other players have sent
their workers, but every placement spent stalling means 1 fewer worker to send
for resources. Earn majority bonuses where you can, but make sure you’re getting
the resources you need to build this turn, and don’t forget about your taxes!

King’s Camp
Turn order in Belfort is unusual – it doesn’t change unless you go to the King’s
Camp and change it. And when you do that, you get to CHOOSE your turn order. It
can be advantageous to go first for the best worker placement choices next
round, but that can also make you a target for another player to take your turn
order crest. You could choose to go 2nd, hoping that a future player
will choose to take the turn order crest from player 1 rather than you, while still
getting an early placement order. You could even choose to go last, which is
especially strong in a scoring round so you can see where other payers have
placed their ownership markers. However, going last runs the risk of the spots
where you’d like to place drying up.

Some guilds, such as the Thieves’ Guild and the Bandits’
Guild, make the King’s camp a much more important consideration, so it’s
important to look at what guilds are in play when you decide how you want to
deal with turn order. Maybe a trip to the King’s Camp is the right play!